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Thursday, December 30, 2010

A new kind of countdown

If you're like most people there's a good chance you will count down the seconds until 2011 just before midnight tomorrow.

Isn't it ironic that we don't pay attention to the passing of 2010 until there's less than 30 seconds left? Wouldn't it have been better to have a countdown clock running all year?

I only ask this because recently my wife and I started counting the days until our kids turn 18. (No, we're not eagerly anticipating them leaving!) We wanted to be a little more aware of how little time we actually have with our kids. We chose 18 as the target age for turning our boys into men. As of today Jackson (my oldest son) only has 4999 days left.

I have been amazed at how this countdown makes me so conscious of parenting. Nearly every day I think about how little time I have and I am inspired to use that time as best as I possibly can.

So for this New Year's Eve, what countdown do you need to start? What do you need to pay more attention to?

Days this year? Days until you graduate? Days until you die? (Okay, you can't actually figure out that last one, but I do know that I have 17030 days until I hit the average life expectancy of an American male.)

Anybody can count down seconds until the new year, but why not be more conscious of the passing of time?